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The purpose of this study was to understand perspectives of doctoral students about their compulsory online experience and aspects of their compulsory online experiences which were strongly associated as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, a disorienting dilemma.

Exploratory descriptive survey research was the approach taken. Notable descriptors and associations were interpreted based on statistical analysis complimented by respondent comments.

Respondents included students who were at various stages of completing their doctoral degree. Overall findings indicated preference for face-to-face classes, the switch to online learning was well-received, primarily as a result of perceptions of quick and supportive communication from doctoral program leadership, strong student and instructor connections, and high-quality collaborative opportunities.

The COVID-19 pandemic represented a disorienting dilemma provoking cognitive dissonance among doctoral students who were compelled to move from a hybrid to a completely online learning model. Fear, anger and discontent induced by broken assumptions were mitigated through shared experiences creating new meaning and habits of mind in the process of adjusting to new expectations. Study results reveal that engagement, collaboration and support among instructors and classmates eased the transformative process transitioning into online learning.

The results of this study provided real-time understanding of students' needs in order to be successful in the quest and persistence of doctoral study online. Though the process of seeking official and state approvals to move the educational leadership doctoral program fully online, program faculty made a series of teaching and program adaptations informed by these results.

Research about doctoral student experiences during a compulsory transition from a hybrid to online delivery model has not been explored and offers original perspective to improve future practice transitioning into online programs for student acceptance, engagement and retention.

The purpose of this study is to explore the role of performance measurement in current practices for strategic management of health-care estates.

The research adopts a constructivist grounded theory approach, combining different methodologies of a pan-European qualitative questionnaire, interviews with international health-care providers and a case study of National Health Services (NHS) Scotland. Here, documentation analysis, observations and in-depth interviews involving NHS stakeholders were undertaken.

The analysis shows evidence that measuring estate performance has limited value for individual NHS boards regarding strategic decisions related to long-term planning and investment. This was due to design issues and the prioritisation of clinical delivery, which contribute to the neglect of the estate as a consideration in long-term strategic planning. This misalignment results in a tool which is valuable for accountability but which is less helpful to NHS boards in shaping future decisions around the estate.

Responding to a gap in understanding of the application of performance measurement in the context of health-care estates, this research provides three recommendations to promote a more effective and relevant performance measurement system. These actively recognise the importance of the estate within strategic decision-making as helping to inform the long-term planning and management of the estate within the individual NHS boards.

This paper shows the current role of performance measurement for the strategic management of health-care estates and identifies issues related to its applicability and value.

The purpose of this research is to study what factors influence European citizens in their interaction with government in the EU regions. It analyses the differences across European regions, taking account of each region’s degree of economic development and incorporating different spatially tailored approaches into the analysis.

A logistic regression analysis was used to establish whether the profiles of e-Government users differ according to the development tier they live in and other explanatory variables: socio-demographic, digital skills and type of internet connection.

This research identifies regional inequalities in EU citizens’ digital behaviour with public administration. This statistical study of European regions allows to better apprehend the profile of the EU’s e-citizens and offers conclusions to explain citizens’ behaviour, highlighting the influence of several variables.

Given the lack of pan-European e-government studies at a regional level, this article provides a comparative analysis for the European Union and gives insights into the behaviour of European e-citizens, highlighting the presence of digital inequalities in Europe depending on the region where citizens reside.

This research focuses on establishing relationships between eco-innovation and organisational innovation and innovation in general to characterise organisational eco-innovation in European Union companies. We also aim to investigate the forms of innovations that eco-innovative companies use as well as the factors or determinants of eco-innovation in the corporate environment that impel the use of organisational innovation.

We use the estimation of different binary logistic regression models with maximum likelihood applied to a sample obtained from the Eurostat's Community Innovation Survey 2014 database as a starting point.

The results suggest that the type of organisational innovation most closely related to eco-innovation is found in work responsibility and decision-making methods. Some less frequently studied significant factors are highlighted, such as training or aspects related to intellectual capital and knowledge management, since significant indications of the importance and acquisition of existing know-how have appeared, in contrast to internal knowledge generation.

The study seeks to observe what specific quantitative drivers (external or internal) are used for organisational eco-innovation, as a specific subtype of eco-innovation. This can improve our understanding of the ways in which organisational innovation can be used by corporations to provide environmental benefits. The academic literature provides information on the drivers and determinants for both organisational innovation and eco-innovation separately, but we believe this article offers a new approach by looking at the specific eco-innovation drivers achieved through organisational innovation.

This paper aims to compare the surface roughness and hardness of three commercially available self-curing acrylic resins for dental use, under different polymerization conditions.

A comparative in vitro study was conducted using a convenience sample of 12 × 5 × 2 mm blocks with n = 40 for each material (Nic Tone, Arias Plus and Orthocryl®), with subgroups according to the polymerization method: conventional (C) and polymerization under ambient conditions (A). The surface roughness of the materials was measured using a profilometer; hardness was measured with a portable hardness tester. Additionally, surface morphology as well as particles size and morphology were evaluated with scanning electron microscopy.

There were significant differences in roughness and hardness values between the three self-curing acrylic resins (p < 0.05), as well as within each self-curing acrylic resin according to the polymerization method used (p < 0.05). The samples polymerized with the conventional method presented lower surface roughness and hardness values.

This study provides scientific evidence of values not provided by manufacturers in relation to the surface roughness and hardness of these materials, and all of them met the ideal minimum values of surface roughness, regardless of the polymerization technique used.

Putting this volume together of this type took a team effort from many individuals who have given of their time and talent. I would really like to express my thanks to all who reviewed chapters for this volume: Mary Lu Love Early Childhood Services at ICI; Nancy Crowell, Georgetown University; Xuejin (Kim) Lu, Children's Services Council of Palm Beach County, FL; Jianping Shen, Western Michigan University; Xin Ma, University of Kentucky; Maria Magdalena Aguilar-Crandall, Brownsville Independent School District; Stuart Reifel, University of Texas at Austin; Deborah Wisneski, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee; Amye Warren, The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga; Sarah Jo Sandefur, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga; and Shira Peterson, Children's Institute. My colleagues here at the University of Texas Brownsville, Renee Rubin, Vejoya Viren, Jaime Garcia, and Ana Laura Rodriguez-Garcia were also of great assistance in reviewing articles.

Taking into account that debtholders bear most of the risks in the case of failure (Jensen and Meckling, 1976), earnings quality is valuable for debtholder decision makers as a monitoring mechanism and as a signal of credibility that reduces information asymmetries. In this sense, this paper aims to analyze whether banks carry out an earnings quality analysis in their lending decision processes and, in particular, how carefully they do it.

The authors focus on data from pre-bankruptcy companies because both earnings management and the potential costs faced by auditors increase considerably during the process towards failure. To test the hypotheses, the authors run separate multivariate regressions of price (cost of debt) and non-price (credit availability) lending decisions on different proxies for earnings quality. The authors use Big N and modified audit reports as a proxy for audit quality. Additionally, they use discretionary accruals as a proxy of accounting numbers quality.

The results show that banks do consider their borrowers’ quality of earnings, but they do it quite cursorily, that is, without taking advantage of all the possibilities offered by an effective combination of external and internal proxies.

The inferences apply only to financially distressed private firms, so they are not generalizable to other contexts with low ownership concentration or with a less severe risk of failure.

The language used by the auditors in the audit report, particularly in generally accepted accounting principles violations, might not be clear enough for the user to undo the specific distortions in the financial statements.

The authors provide evidence of how banks incorporate earnings quality into their lending decisions, prior research has analyzed them either separately or from an equity market perspective. Moreover, the authors also add to the debt-covenant literature by explicitly showing that manipulation helps managers to achieve better lending conditions.

While Argentina has significantly improved access to HIV care and antiretroviral therapy (ART) for both the general population and prisoners, the prevalence of alcohol use disorders (AUDs) among HIV‐infected prisoners and their relationship to accessing ART in Argentina is currently unknown. This study aims to characterize the substance abuse patterns of HIV‐infected prisoners in Argentina and to assess the independent correlates of receipt of pre‐incarceration ART.

An anonymous, cross‐sectional survey of 100 HIV‐infected federal prisoners was conducted in the Buenos Aires municipality from July‐December 2010. AUDs were assessed using the AUDIT scale.

A majority (63 per cent) of participants met criteria for AUDs, 45 per cent of subjects were diagnosed with HIV in prison and one‐quarter had initiated ART during the current incarceration. In addition, over one‐third (35 per cent) of participants did not receive ART during the pre‐incarceration period despite receiving it upon incarceration. This correlated significantly with the presence of having an AUD (AOR 0.20, 95 per cent CI 0.06‐0.74, p=0.016).

AUDs are prevalent among HIV‐infected prisoners in Argentina and are significantly related to negative secondary HIV prevention and treatment outcomes. While Argentina has provided an exemplary model of HIV‐related health care reform within its prisons, future efforts to provide screening and treatment for AUDs are needed to improve the health of the nation's incarcerated population.

This paper is the first to describe pre‐incarceration drug and alcohol use disorders and issues related to access to ART among prisoners in Argentina.

The purpose of this paper is to obtain new knowledge about the accounting measurement of financial sustainability in local governments, by studying the influence of political factors on the evolution of income statements.

This paper analyses income statements of Spanish municipalities from 2006 to 2014, together with mayor profiles and political-institutional factors, using the generalised method of moments system.

The income statement represents a useful measure to assess financial sustainability, showing the effect of political factors on three dimensions proposed by IFAC (i.e. service, revenue and debt), such as ideological coincidence, political competition, political ideology, and absolute majority or political fragmentation.

The findings can be useful for policymakers and accountants responsible for accountability, supervisory bodies, fiscal authorities, voters, users of public services and other stakeholders interested in governmental income statements.

In the Eurozone, the crisis of government finance has made the citizens and the policymakers question the size and volume of public services. Likewise, in countries such as Spain, politicians remain one of the main problems for citizens. These circumstances make it very interesting and timely to study the accounting measurement of financial sustainability and its political explanations.

The findings provide new empirical evidence about the accounting measurement of financial sustainability in local governments, and they identify political factors that influence the evolution of income statements.